Technicality may still hamper ARMM poll automation

By Dona Pazzibugan - Philippine Daily Inquirer

The planned automation of the August 11 elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) still faces a major glitch as Congress has yet to approve a special exemption that allowed the Commission on Elections to enter into negotiated contracts with voting machine suppliers.

A joint congressional oversight body has promised to exempt the Comelec from government procurement rules just so that the poll body could implement the automated elections law of 2007.

The Congressional Oversight Committee on the Automated Electoral System, however, has not yet obtained approval of such resolution from both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. reminded Senator Richard Gordon, who chairs the oversight committee, that suspending the law on public bidding needed congressional approval.

"These (bidding) requirements could not be suspended by a mere approval or recommendation of the oversight committee. There should be a law to authorize the suspension," said Pimentel.

Pimentel pointed out, however, that he had no objection to the committee's decision to waive the bidding rules in this case.

He urged Gordon and committee co-chair, Makati Representative Teodoro Locsin Jr. to immediately file the resolution so it could be approved by both chambers as soon as possible.

Gordon chairs the Senate committee on constitutional amendments while Locsin chairs the House committee on electoral suffrage and reforms.

The Comelec announced earlier this week that it had awarded contracts to two bidders to supply the voting machines.

Smartmatic-Sahi Technologies, Inc. will install a direct recording electronic (DRE) system in Maguindanao while Avanti International Technologies Inc. will provide an optical mark reader (OMR) technology for the other five ARMM provinces -- Lanao del Sur, Shariff Kabunsuan, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi Tawi.

The DRE system uses touch-screen or touch-pad technology and is fully automated, according to Smartmatic-Sahi. The OMR technology on the other hand requires voters to fill out a paper ballot which will be scanned by specially designed machines.

The Comelec has a P867.3 million budget for the automation of the ARMM polls.

Gordon welcomed the news of the award of the contracts, which he said "signals the first step towards truly modernizing our democracy."

"With computers in the precincts, our fellow Filipinos in the ARMM are assured that their votes will be counted and counted fast, possibly within the hour, and their right to choose their leaders protected," he said.

Under the current system of manual voting and counting, "it takes too long to get a result and time taken to count the votes encourages "dagdag-bawas" (vote padding and vote shaving) and other electoral fraud," Gordon added.

Pimentel shared Gordon's hope that poll automation would prevent electoral fraud in a region known for massive electoral cheating.

"Unless we use the automated election system in an actual election, we will not be able to find out its various features as well as its possible defects," he also said.

He said the success of poll automation in the ARMM would be crucial for the upcoming 2010 presidential election.

Comelec inking poll automation deal with Smartmatic Friday

Contract with OMR supplier signed Monday

By Erwin Oliva - INQUIRER.net
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will sign Friday afternoon the contract for the automated election system to be used in parts of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) during regional elections there in August.

Comelec chair Jose Melo confirmed to INQUIRER.net that the poll body will sign the contract with Smartmatic Sahi for its direct recording electronic (DRE) technology.

The Comelec Bids and Awards Committee witnessed a demonstration of the technology by several suppliers late Tuesday.

The Comelec also expects to sign a contract with another supplier, this time of the optical-mark reader (OMR) technology, on Monday, Melo added.

ABS International and Avante are both bidding to supply the OMR technology.

Melo said the poll body has to rush the implementation of the poll automation program since it only has three months before the ARMM elections.

The election automation in the ARMM requires the use of DRE technology in Maguindanao and OMR technology in five other provinces, namely Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Lanao del Sur and Shariff Kabunsuan.

The use of the two technologies is based on the recommendations of an advisory council.

DRE uses touch-screen or touch-pad technology for voting, while OMR requires voters to complete a paper ballot which is then fed into a specially designed machine, similar to a scanner.

The advisory council is the body of expert advisers created under Republic Act 9369 and given the task of recommending to the Comelec the technology to use for the election automation.

The Department of Budget and Management has allocated about P867 million for the automation of the ARMM elections.

The advisory council had recommended a six-month schedule for the deployment of the automated election system. This will include training voters and Comelec personnel and for "mock elections."

Melo said the Comelec still has time to deploy the automated election system, as mandated by law.

"We think we can still do it. We need this since we can't do automated elections in 2010 without this. We have no choice," he added.

Comelec advisory council: Award contract to remaining bidder

Use all legal means to implement automation

The advisory council to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has reiterated its earlier position to award the contract to a bidder found to have showed "sufficient compliance" with the technical requirements of the poll body for the automation of elections in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

The advisory council, led by the chairman of the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT), met Saturday to discuss its reaction to the poll body's earlier decision to set aside automation of the elections in ARMM after the latest bidder failed to comply with a number of mandatory technical requirements, and last weeks' plan by lawmakers to suspend the procurement act to help Comelec pursue automation.

The Comelec agreed Monday to proceed with automation in four of the six provinces of ARMM.

"With regard to the DRE component, we reiterate our comments in our letter dated 3 April 2008 that the sole bidder has demonstrated sufficient compliance for the Comelec to proceed with the awarding of the bid," the advisory council said in a resolution signed by majority of its members, a copy of which was obtained by INQUIRER.net.

"We have no objection to the Comelec's decision to expand the deployment of direct recording electronic (DRE) technology from two cities or municipalities to an entire province, but we still believe that scaling down the deployment of DRE technology will lessen the risk of a failed automation," the resolution added.

The council was referring to a decision of the Comelec to reject the bid made by Smartmatic Sahi joint venture after the latter failed to comply with several mandatory technical requirements set out in the request for proposal, which was drafted by the poll body in collaboration with the council.

The rejection of the bid follows the disqualification of a previous bid for non-eligibility, leaving no qualified bidders remaining for the automation project, which the Comelec considers a pilot for the automation of local and national elections in 2010.

According to Comelec resolution 8436 dated April 11, 2008, the Comelec en banc has adopted the recommendation of its Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) to reject the bid tendered by the joint venture.

According to the resolution, Smartmatic Sahi bidded for several components of the automated ARMM elections, namely the electronic voting system with integrated election management system; the secure electronic transmission system for election results; the consolidation and canvassing system; and the systems integration and over-all project management.

Meanwhile, the advisory council said that the Comelec should use whatever legal means to proceed with the procurement process for the optical-mark reader component of the ARMM poll automation.

The advisory council said it will continue providing advice and technical assistance to the Comelec with regard to the automation of elections starting with ARMM and eventually the 2010 elections.

The advisory council is the body of expert advisers created under Republic Act 9369 and given the task of recommending to the Comelec which technology to use for the automation of elections.

The advisory council has recommended the use of two technologies in the ARMM elections: direct recording electronic and optical-mark reader.

DRE uses a touch-screen or touch-pad technology for voting, while OMR requires voters to complete a paper-based ballot which is then fed into a specially designed machine, similar to a scanner.

The advisory council had recommended a six-month schedule for the deployment of the automated election system. This will also include training of voters and the users in Comelec, and "mock elections."

The Department of Budget and Management has allocated about P867 million for the automation of the elections in ARMM. By Erwin Oliva - INQUIRER.net

Procurement Act to be suspended for ARMM poll automation

Comelec to adopt a one system, one province setup

By Veronica Uy - INQUIRER.net
The Joint Congressional Committee on Automated Elections has agreed to provide legal cover to the poll body by suspending the Government Procurement Reform Act to pave the way for the automation of the elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao this August.

The suggestion, which came from Senators Edgardo Angara and Juan Ponce-Enrile, was accepted by Comelec Chairman Jose Melo, who initially told the upper house that the poll body won't be able to automate the ARMM polls for lack of time.

The two senators proposed to file a joint congressional resolution that would give everything the Comelec will need to automate the only elections before the 2010 presidential and senatorial polls.

In his presentation to the body, Melo said he and the other poll commissioners were wary of allowing bidders who have "substantially complied" with the requirements of both the Poll Automation Law and the Procurement Act to participate in the bid.

Of the eight parties that got bid documents from the Comelec, only one made it, forcing the Comelec to stop its plan to automate the ARMM polls. (The Procurement Act, which sets the policies and details the procedures for all government purchases, mandates that having a single bidder is equivalent to a failed bid.)

Comelec executive director Jose Tolentino, who is part of the bidding and awards committee, said they conducted another bid, which failed to attract more bidders. He said that for the automation to push through and based on their timeline, the bids should have been awarded by April 3.

Over and above the objections of the Advisory Council, Comelec thus abandoned poll automation in ARMM altogether and started to prepare for manual elections. The Advisory Council, which was created by the Poll Automation Law to recommend the technologies that might be used, recommended that Comelec proceed even with bidders who have "substantially complied."

Howard Calleja, who as official of the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting is a member of the Advisory Council, explained that having a memory stick instead of a compact disk or a different-sized paper should qualify as having "substantially complied."

After the hearing, Melo said the poll body would re-open the bidding for automation in the provinces of Lanao Del Sur, Maguindanao, Sharif Kabunsuan, and Basilan on the suggestion of Makati Representative Teodoro "Teddy Boy" Locsin Jr. for a one system-one province setup.

Melo said he wanted to exclude Sulu and Tawi-tawi from poll automation as these provinces would not meet the basic technical requirements on power and accessibility.

Locsin and Angara noted the poll body's apprehension of not following the law to the letter after the numerous controversies, primary of which was the wiretapping case where the President was alleged to have called up a poll commissioner asking him to ensure a million votes lead over her rival. The poll body also received a lot of flak for the conduct of the 2007 senatorial elections in ARMM.

Aside from Melo, the poll body is now composed of Commissioners Rene Sarmiento, Nicodemo Ferrer, Romeo Brawner, and Moslemen Macarambon.

Members of the congressional committee alternately threatened, castigated, and appealed to the poll body to implement the automation law which was passed in 1997 and amended in 2007.

The congressional body refused to accept their explanation why it could not automate the ARMM polls or even Melo's proposal to postpone the ARMM polls.

Earlier, Enrile threatened to cancel the Comelec budget of P837 million for the ARMM elections if it would insist on not implementing the law and proceeding with a manual system.

Representative Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan De Oro stressed the importance of conducting some form of automated elections before the 2010 national elections.

Melo will meet with the Comelec commissioners, its senior staff, and the various suppliers for the automated elections to discuss what they would need in the joint congressional resolution.

Senator Richard Gordon, co-chairman of the committee, said the body would meet with the Comelec again on Monday so that the committee could draft the resolution and enact it into law before May 11, the deadline for the Comelec to proceed with testing the equipment and software for the automation.

11 bidders attend ARMM automated polls pre-bid conference

At least 11 parties have attended the Commission on Election's (Comelec) pre-bid conference for the automation of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) elections a Comelec spokesperson said.

Among the companies who joined Tuesday's pre-bid conference was Mega Data Corp., which has indicated it will submit a position paper requesting that it be qualified to participate in the bid, said Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez.

Mega Data Corp., a local company pushing the "Botong Pinoy" (Vote Filipino) initiative, was hoping that it would be included as potential bidder despite not having any "track record" in a prior successful election.

Jimenez said that the "request for proposal," which was put together by the Comelec based on the recommendations made by an advisory council, requires that the potential bidder should have been part of a prior successful election.

The potential bidders were a mix of local and foreign companies, the Comelec spokesperson said. Jimenez, however, declined to give the names of the companies until they officially submit their bids on March 10, 2008.

The Department of Budget and Management has allocated about P867 million for the automation of the elections in ARMM this coming August.

The Comelec website has announced the schedule of the bid and its requirement for the upcoming elections.

The publication of the invitation to bid was made from February 14 to 16, 2008.

A pre-bid conference was scheduled on February 25 but was moved to February 26 because that day was declared a non-working holiday.

The Comelec is giving bidders until March 10, 2008 to submit their bids.

The opening bid documents is set on March 10, 2008.

The Comelec en banc announced in a resolution that it has accepted the recommendations of an advisory council led by the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT).

The recommendations include the use of two technologies in the ARMM elections: the direct recording electronic (DRE) technology and the optical mark-reader (OMR).

DRE uses a touch-screen or touch-pad technology for voting, while OMR requires voters to fill in a paper-based ballot that is fed to a specially designed machine, similar to a scanner.

The Comelec en banc, however, has decided to use the DRE technology for the whole province of Maguindanao, which was contrary to the advisory council's recommendation to limit its use to two cities or municipalities.

The Comelec en banc decided to use the DRE for the whole province of Maguindanao to fully test the technology in time for the 2010 elections.

"The recommended scope of the use of DRE technology is too insignificant to be a sound basis for a proper evaluation for that technology’s suitability for use in Philippine elections," the Comelec said in its resolution.

The advisory council is the body of expert advisers created under Republic Act 9369. It is a body tasked to recommend to the Comelec which technology to use for the automation of elections.

Members include the Chairman of the Commission on Information Communication Technology, representatives from the Department of Science and Technology and the Department of Education, a representative from the academe, representatives from IT professional organizations and from non-governmental electoral reform organizations.
By Erwin Oliva - INQUIRER.net

Comelec, CICT: Not enough time to automate barangay polls

By Erwin Oliva - INQUIRER.net


MANILA, Philippines -- Both the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) believe there is not enough time to automate the village polls.

"There is not enough time. There are only six to seven weeks left until October 29, 2007," said CICT Commissioner Tim Diaz de Rivera, who is also chair of the technical advisory committee to the Comelec, in reaction to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's statement Friday.

The technical advisory committee is composed of several government agencies and private sector stakeholders handpicked by the CICT.

Arroyo announced that she wanted the elections computerized starting with the barangay (village) elections next month. She said this during the diamond jubilee celebration of the Woman Suffrage Philippines at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.

“I don't know how it can be done. We are just starting to evaluate potential vendors. But last July, we did suggest non-binding mock elections for the October elections. The Comelec rejected it because there was not enough time," Diaz de Rivera said.

The government executive stressed that the technical advisory committee and the Comelec have agreed to implement an automated election system for the ARMM polls in August 2008.

Last week, there was a suggestion to hold automated mock elections in November in select areas with minimal cost to government, Diaz de Rivera said.

"We haven't decided on which areas. The law [Republic Act 9369] requires us to do it in 12 locations covering 5 percent of voting population. Since there's no funding available for pilot implementation," the government executive said.

He added that the technical advisory committee is also looking at holding a vendor road show, where vendors could showcase their technology during mock elections in one designated area.

"The idea here is to understand various technologies of different vendors and from that activity combined with our own research, we will recommend what Comelec can use during ARMM elections," Diaz de Rivera said.

The government executive also stressed that RA 9369 or the Automated Election System law requires Comelec to have a six-month lead time for voter education.

"If we wanted to automate the barangay elections, voter education should have started as early as February or March.

Meanwhile, James Jimenez, spokesperson from Comelec, agreed with the assessment of CICT Commissioner Diaz de Rivera.

Jimenez also stressed that there is no "consolidation of votes" during the village polls, which involves 42,000 barangays.

"There's no consolidation of votes during the barangay elections. We might be under-utilizing the technology that will be used," he said, adding that the Comelec is preparing for automating the ARMM elections.

Nonetheless, Jimenez said that the Comelec will wait for the recommendations of the technical advisory committee.

Comelec officials were unavailable for additional comment.

The CICT head has been mandated under Republic Act 9369, which amends the Automated Election Law (RA 8436), to name at least six non-government representatives to come out with guidelines on how to automate elections by 2010.

Poll automation demos to follow October barangay elections

By Lawrence Casiraya - INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines -- The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will begin testing different automation technologies following the local barangay elections this October.

The Comelec is looking to finally deploy computerization beginning with next year's local elections in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).

"Chairman (Benjamin) Abalos and Commissioner (Resureccion) Borra have agreed to hold the mock elections a week after the barangay elections," said Tim Diaz de Rivera, head of the technical working group assisting Comelec with its modernization efforts.

The mock polls are designed to help Diaz de Rivera's group in evaluating which technology to adopt for the ARMM elections, scheduled for August 2008.

The Comelec has also issued requests for information or RFI to technology suppliers so that they could present their products for demonstration.

In an interview via phone, Diaz de Rivera added there is a possibility of adopting different technologies for the actual elections. He said that one platform his group is eyeing uses direct recording electronic (DRE) machines.

Instead of manual polling booths, DRE uses preconfigured options wherein the voter casts his vote by pressing a touch screen that lists down the names of candidates.

While this is the most advanced technology commonly used in other countries, this is also touted as the most expensive to deploy, according to Comelec in its website.

DRE is the most marketed platform for election automation, with at least seven vendors selling the technology, according to Diaz de Rivera.

He added that his group is eyeing precincts in which each vendor can demonstrate their respective solutions.

"One option is for local government units to volunteer to hold the mock polls. We already have mayors who have volunteered for it," he said.